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Rate of Selling Eggs/Sperm Increase in 2008: Good, Bad?

With the crippling economy, some people are now resorting to less obvious ways of making money. According to a recently released research figures, the number of women applying to donate eggs have doubled allowing them to earn as much as $10,000 and sperm donations also rising 15%.

I fully understand that many people are desperate to conceive to become parents (whilst tens of millions get rid of their babies), but "donating" sperm/eggs is under threat of being replaced by selling that to cope with increasing financial pressures. Most people would tend to consider selling your bodies for sex to be immoral, but do you feel uneasy at the rate of people looking to sell their eggs/sperm to make an extra buck?

It was designed to be a concept based on principles on helping people conceive, and although the vast majority have always sold their "assets", is it morally objectionable for so many people to take this root?

Reply 1

invictus_veritas

13

you're giving a child to parents who can't conceive. You're bringing love and hope and happiness into the lives of people that through no fault of their own can't conceive children.

So what if people are being paid to do it? The return that other couples get from having children in their lives is priceless.

Morally it would be better to think of nice people donating sperm and eggs as a chariable act, but ultimately money makes the world go round and the fact that people pay effectively to have kids shouldn't make them any less able to have them. You don't moan about all the money that's spent on keeping you alive when you have cancer do you?

Reply 2

Meus

OP

20

invictus_veritas

you're giving a child to parents who can't conceive. You're bringing love and hope and happiness into the lives of people that through no fault of their own can't conceive children.

So what if people are being paid to do it? The return that other couples get from having children in their lives is priceless.

Morally it would be better to think of nice people donating sperm and eggs as a chariable act, but ultimately money makes the world go round and the fact that people pay effectively to have kids shouldn't make them any less able to have them. You don't moan about all the money that's spent on keeping you alive when you have cancer do you?

I thought it would be obvious. They are not doing to donate to a couple who can't conceive, but are literally selling it. The financial difficulties mixed with the substantial increase of figures are not a mere coincidence. People need money, and one of the easiest ways of making money has been doing this historically. The concept of donating for the sake of giving a couple the gift of life seemingly plays little here. The question therefore is, does it become morally questionable when more and more people do it for the neccessity of money?

Reply 3

WolfSong2000

9

You have to remember it's much more complicated for a woman to donate/sell eggs than it is for a man to do the same with sperm. To donate eggs, a woman has to undergo general anesthetic, which is in itself a risk. What risk do men undergo donating sperm?

Reply 4

RetiredAccount89

18

WolfSong2000

You have to remember it's much more complicated for a woman to donate/sell eggs than it is for a man to do the same with sperm. To donate eggs, a woman has to undergo general anesthetic, which is in itself a risk. What risk do men undergo donating sperm?

carpal tunnel...

Reply 5

Reue

20

I was under the impression that you cannot sell your sperm for money in the UK?

I see absoloutly no problem selling my sperm. Its just gonna go to waste anyway as i certainly dont want a kid anytime soon.

Reply 6

ecokid

1

An egg or some sperm is hardly exactly a 'child' or even 'life'. What you're giving them is the potential to have a child, and that is very different from a child itself. It is still up to them to carry the child for the full term. Of course money makes the whole affair 'dirtier', if you will, but lets not confuse what exactly is being exchanged here: hope.

Reply 7

silverbolt

19

Reue

I was under the impression that you cannot sell your sperm for money in the UK?

so was I, ok i need to know where to go and how much i get (they they can sod off if its a tenner per cup FULL)

Reply 8

anamcariad

I'm considering selling my eggs in the future, but I wouldn't dream of doing it for free - unlike sperm donation, there are a lot of risks involved (see http://www.stanford.edu/class/siw198q/websites/eggdonor/procedures.html for more information), and I've heard that it's a very painful procedure. You can't possibly expect women to go through that for free so that some perfect strangers can have a child. If nobody paid for eggs, very few women would voluntarily donate them.

Reply 9

suicidal_dream

1

you cant actually sell it in the uk as far as im aware, unless its on the black market!

I dont know if i agree with the payment - it'll create a gap between the rich and the poor - those that can afford eggs and those that cant (on the other hand, if they cant afford an egg, i wonder how they can afford to look after a child...)...but still, i dont think its right to be creating this void.

Reply 10

member64211

11

You can't sell gametes in the UK...

Rate of Selling Eggs/Sperm Increase in 2008: Good, Bad?

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